Fri 11.3.

View into the chapel at Spanish architectural practice COR's funeral home and garden in Alicante for the Town Council of Pinoso

(Text by Simon Cowell)

Shuffling off this mortal coil is something we all, sadly, have to do. There’s no opting out. But while mortality might be a great leveller, a number of architects have shown recently how designing environments that process death – be it in practical or psychological terms – can be elevated above the uninspired builds that we’ve been used to, which have all to easily embraced historicism or, perhaps worse, anonymity. Architonic presents a selection of projects that put some life back into designing for the dead.

A rational response by Portuguese architect Pedro Dias to the Duarte family's brief to design a eight-coffin tomb in the Açor Mountains; photo Pedro Dias